Mesut Ozil and Kevin De Bruyne are arguably equally talented as each other.
They play in similar positions, albeit De Bruyne playing in a slightly deeper midfield role.
However, when Ozil’s Arsenal faced Kevin De Bruyne’s Manchester City on Sunday, the pair had contrasting days.
Belgium international De Bruyne was the best player on the Emirates pitch. Bar none.
Matteo Guendouzi, who was the one mainly tasked with marking De Bruyne looked like a rabbit in the headlights, particularly in the first half.
De Bruyne dictated the pace of the game and played a major role in all of Man City’s goals as they ran out easy 3-0 winners.
It took just two minutes for De Bruyne to establish himself with an excellent finish to give his side the lead.
Gabriel Jesus’ low cross was a little on the firm side and evaded Raheem Sterling, and it looked as though the Gunners had got away with it. Not with De Bruyne around though.
He fired the quick ball into the roof of the net when mere mortals would have skied it into row Z.
On 15 minutes, Man City were 2-0 up and while De Bruyne didn’t score himself, the goal was all about him.
De Bruyne found himself surrounded by Arsenal players on the left-hand side – not his strongest position.
But he still managed to dig out a low cross into the box, which found an unmarked Sterling, who tapped the ball into an effectively empty net.
The Emirates Stadium was silent in the first-half, almost in awe of what they were seeing and that includes the Arsenal fans who are extremely vocal in their criticism of their underachieving side.
De Bruyne wasn’t done there and he bagged his second goal of the game five minutes before the break with an excellent sweeping finish with his weaker left peg.
He did brilliantly to let the ball go across his body which beat Guendouzi in the process before using Calum Chambers as a blocker and curling it past the helpless Bernd Leno.
What De Bruyne did just before half time was probably his best moment and it didn’t even lead to a goal.
The 28-year-old found himself in space on the edge of the box before unleashing a beautiful curling strike which was brilliantly saved onto the post by Leno.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher could even be heard making an involuntary, almost dare I say orgasmic, noise while that chance unfolded.
After the break, Man City and De Bruyne understandably took their foot off the gas with the game already won but they still ran the show.
Now let’s look at what Ozil did…
The German was substituted on 59 minutes and clearly frustrated by how things had gone, kicked his gloves in frustration as Emile Smith Rowe came on in his place.
As Ozil trudged off, some Arsenal fans were on at him for not leaving quicker – the scene slightly resembling the infamous Granit Xhaka incident where he told the booing Gooners to ‘f*** off’ as he left the pitch.
For all his talent, Ozil going missing in big games is an all too familiar sight for Arsenal fans while De Bruyne is always at his best or at least near his best consistently.
Ozil may be a World Cup winner but De Bruyne is the type of player he dreams of being.
